my problem with horror fiction

as of lately i have found my reading habits leaning towards horror fiction.  this is a genre i loved a few years ago during my incessant watching of buffy the vampire, but recently i have been let down as a whole.  before halloween i went to half price books and purchased 8 horror novels thinking i could down one to two a week like i usually can.  it’s now november and i have only finished one and quit the other one.  now i find myself with a little predicament.  do i continue and finish the rest, or do i give the genre another go around?

before i decide, i have to get a few things off my chest about the genre.  first, why does it have to be near impossible to find a horror book that does not heavily rely on romance as its key plot point.  the last book i chocked down hadd at least one sex scene per chapter.  dont get me wrong i dont mind sex in my books, but i do mind sensless sex just to fill pages.  the whole book felt like the author had a certain page count he had to reach and decided poorly written sex scenes were in order to fill that page count.

my next biggest complaint is the lack of actual horror in these so-called horror novels of today.  everything just seems so tame compared to the classics like Richard Matheson’s hell house and i am legend.  even Washington Irving the legend of sleepy hollow is more terrifying than half of the other books out there today.  i remember when i finally found a copy of i am legend when the film came out, i read it straight through in one day.  afterwards i found my self dwelling on the loneliness of the main character.  today i just finished howl-o-ween and i can honestly say that there was not a single scene or feeling that the book left me with.  if it was a movie i could forgive it for being terrible, but i have invested too much time into this book to come up with nothing and yet that is exactly what i have.  no visions of headless riders in the woods.  no sense of abandonment and dread.  just hours spent trying to craft a picture in my imagination, yet there is not a single line on the canvas of my mind.

where does this leave me?  i know there is more to say, but i am to disappointed to write anything else.  maybe i can come back in the future and finish what i have started, but for now this blog remains like my thoughts on the genre as a whole, wanting more and not yet receiving it.

My Screamworld

tonight here in Houston the Halloween season officially kicks off with the opening of screamworld.  i have always been fascinated by haunted attractions, dark rides, and Halloween ever since going on the haunted mansion at walt disney world.  for me screamworld has been the stuff of legend ever since it was known as the haunted hotel in downtown Houston.  i remember the stories from my sister about the maniac with a chainsaw chasing her as she leaved the house.  i remember my friend Stuart telling me about the ghost and zombies appearing out of nowhere.  tonight was the night my own memories would be made.

approaching the haunt is nerve-wracking to say the least.  my adrenaline starts pumping to prepare for the awesomeness that waits.  at screamworld all 5 attractions are interconnected with the first , the maze of maniacs,  being the start of the line for the main attraction.   the maze is completely different from every other haunted maze i have gone through.  it’s not so much of a dark maze, but instead its chain link fence with strobe lights and heavy metal blaring.  the effect is  enough  fence to make the  hardly seen by the strobe, and the maniacs pop up out of nowhere in the crowds causing groups to split up.  all in all something different that fit the tone of things to come.

next i find my self staring down an abandoned looking building getting ready to enter the main event.  as soon as i walk into the haunted hotel i notice the detail put into every aspect of the scenes.  from the crumbling entry way to the hallways filled with skulls, there was always something to look at and distract you.  as  i travelled further everything began to get more elaborate which is something i havent  seen since i visited thrillvania in terrel, tx.

the next area, the edge of darkness, was fairly forgettable for me with the exception of one scene, the castle and dungeon.  now im not quite sure if that was in the hotel or edge, but everything from the walls to the giant animatronic skull monsters was nothing but pure joy to look at.  for the first time in tha haunt i felt transported to a world full of sorcery and magic.  this one room along with the entry way made the whole trip worthwhile until i entered the next area.

jakes slaughterhouse was the final indoors area, and man what an area to end off with.  everywhere you look you see bodies, human and animal alike, hanging from rafters and strewn about on tables.  not really your traditional maze form but three rooms you must traverse around butchers chasing bloody victims around made this an experience that i will never forget.  not really terrifying per say, but it was like living the hostel or saw films out.

finally you end with zombie graveyard.  think of any low-budget zombie movie from the asylum and you have this area.

was screamworld the nightmare of legends from my childhood.  yeas and no.  yes, because the design elements in the haunted hotel and jake’s slaughterhouse were some of the best i have seen with something new to always look at.  yet no due to the fact it felt like i have seen all this before.  still screamworld was worth my trip.  i would give it 7 out of  10 skulls.

in a few weeks look for my review of nightmare on the bayou, and a retrospective on my favorite haunt, thrillvania.

 

My new technology

Thanks to the amazing thing called tethering I can once again start to post somewhat coherent thoughts on this magic device called the Internet.    In other randomness spell checker just told me Internet is a proper name and therefor it must be capitalized.

Recently I purchased a blu ray player and a net book within the span of a couple of weeks.  For me that is a pretty big deal.  It has been over 5 years since I have owned a computer, and now that I own one again I rarely find myself on it.  The same thing is happening with my blu ray player.  I have watched less TV  with it than I did without it.  Figures right?

My Readers Digest Life

For the past few weeks i have found myself thinking more and more about how i came about my current situation in life.  Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with my life, but I cannot help to think how my life would be different if I didn’t make certain choices over the years.  This all started with the Dallas Mavericks winning the NBA championship this year.  The last time that they were in the finals was in 2005 against the Miami Heat.  Back in 2005 I was enrolled in a program called Masters Commission.  MC is a discipleship and ministry training program for young adults called into some form of ministry.  At the time I knew God had called me into the ministry, but I really had no idea where or to what extent.  So after MC ended I went and joined a church plant figuring that was the thing I was supposed to do, and although I enjoyed my time at the church plant, it just never felt like that was where I was supposed to be.  The next thing I know I wound up back in Houston bouncing around from job to job all the while forgetting about Gods calling for me and my life.  Throughout the 5 years since I have failed to maintain my relationship with God and many of the friends I have made.  I can honestly count the number of people i have kept in contact with on one hand.  This is mostly due to the guilt i feel for not being as far along in ministry as some of the people i know who were called to minister are.  Yes I know this is a stupid reason, but when you see something happening all around you but not to you, its get a little depressing.  So here I am now trying to put the pieces back together.  I am reading my bible and praying more.  I have spent the past 3 weeks in a fast, and I feel a rejuvenation in my spirit to finish off my ministers license courses.  The thing is I know I can not do this on my own.  That was my mistake from before.  I did what I wanted and not what God wanted from me.  Now I know that He will provide a way.  The computer I am typing this on is a testament to that.  Knowing that i would a computer to finish my classes I picked this one up thinking it was $215 on clearance and it wound up really being $125 on clearance.  So there you have the readers digest version of my life the past 5 years.   Now all I need is help accomplishing my goal of finishing my classes.  If anybody who reads this feels called to give anything just let me know.  Even your prayers will be greatly appreciated.

Isaac